• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Are my bass traps reasonable or am i doing something wrong?

caught gesture

Senior Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 19, 2021
Messages
443
Likes
936
Location
Italia
Based on those graphs alone, I’d prefer with traps closed just for the better results in the kick/bass region.
 
OP
S

slacki

Active Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2022
Messages
162
Likes
47
i guess i can get the same with 2 subs and maybe some room correction furniture, so i dont have those big traps there anymore.
my initial goal was to somehow get rid of the traps as they not only block massive sunlight but also eat a lot of space. and as far as i can see, they do only little improvement, which can also be achieved with some other things (absorbers, reflectors, etc.), right?
 

Flaesh

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2021
Messages
430
Likes
306
Location
Eburg
i have no idea how to get those data :/
Waterfall:
1669930545749.png

With a bass trap, resonances decay faster

Clarity:
1669931074413.png

quitet low even wiyh bass traps. You may want more than 90% D50 at least)). Clarity tread https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...n-rew-and-tell-us-how-your-bass-sounds.22567/
Wavelet and Peak energy time (Spectrogram window):
1669931913664.png

This is the least conventional metric. The audibility of defects of PET graph is worthy of study))
For example: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...uasi-plain-wave-radiation.24396/#post-1321483
 
OP
S

slacki

Active Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2022
Messages
162
Likes
47
with traps open i have a clarity of 80.8%, which sounds reasonable as they do now some work, but i could also imagine that this would be done by some wall absorbers that do not eat that much space (i could use many of those https://www.aixfoam.de/noppenschaumstoff-raumakustik-sh002-mh for my ceiling/wall, there are even sticky ones to simply attach to the wall, awesome :) ).
with traps closed its only 66.9% and without traps its 50%, so the traps do something but nothing related to bass ;)
thanks for the help with REW, i was not aware of clarity and all that stuff, will read more about it
 

goat76

Major Contributor
Joined
Jul 21, 2021
Messages
1,269
Likes
1,385
Your closed bass traps are clearly the most effective bass traps overall, look at how much they reduce the decay time vs the others. As I see it, that's the main task for bass traps. The open bass traps even out the frequency response a bit better, but that can easily be dealt with EQ instead.

I made a gif that makes it easy to see what the differences are between closed vs open bass traps in your room. As I tried to explain earlier in the thread, which type of bass trap is the most effective is highly dependent on how the directions of the room modes are in a specific room.

BLABLA CLOSED VS OPEN BASS TRAPS.gif

And below are the waterfall graphs for "closed", "open", and without bass traps for comparisons.

BLABLA TRAPS CLOSED.jpg

BLABLA TRAPS OPEN.jpg

BLABLA NO TRAPS.jpg
 

FeddyLost

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
May 24, 2020
Messages
752
Likes
542
now i disassembled them - and tbh i dont want to assemble them again
Then I'd try out EQing your issues identified with waterfall and check the result.
Maybe it will be enough, subjective and by measurements.

If that will be not enough, I'd recommend you to use thinner room treatment and multi-sub solution. Otherwise anything working will be expensive and still not small.
 
OP
S

slacki

Active Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2022
Messages
162
Likes
47
I'd recommend you to use thinner room treatment and multi-sub solution
Thats what i also think is the way to go. Maybe some more furniture to block the walls, maybe a big book shelf. And some of those absorbers.
Can you recommend a subwoofer pair that is not too big but is usable for HT? I would love the KEF KC62 but their auto-eq is something i dont want to fight with when i use audyssey. The SVS Micro 3000 looks awesome but does not go that deep :/

I will try to get some measurements these days when i connect my laptop (REW) with my Marantz. Hope i have a hdmi cable in the basement somewhere.
 
OP
S

slacki

Active Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2022
Messages
162
Likes
47
so, this is the first measurement from the marantz with audyssey and the "softtraps", means basstraps without wood anymore
and the measurement with no traps at all, also with audyssey
 

Attachments

  • marantz with softtraps.mdat.zip
    64.2 KB · Views: 35
  • marantz no traps.mdat.zip
    63.8 KB · Views: 36
Last edited:

Unkown

Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2022
Messages
10
Likes
2
I haven't read all of the comments so this might already being said before.

I would investigate more about the mechanics of your bass trap, and what you measure.

Physically speaking, your traps should not have that kind effect on the SPL graph. Absorbers need a lot of physical distance from the wall to reach that low. Their effect should be seen more in the decay time.

It could be your traps are altering wall reflections in a postive way. Another possibility might be that your traps are resonating and sort of work as a VPR .

Whatever the reason, they are filling in dips/nulls which you can't fix with EQ, which is a good thing.

If you're going for 4 corner subs, you could build the subs underneath the traps. You can build a nice Dayton 15inch closed sub within these 50x50x50cm dimensions, and you can even order a pre fab kit if you don't like the labour.
 

Ra1zel

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Jul 6, 2021
Messages
531
Likes
1,048
Location
Poland
In your situation additional subs would certainly help the most with proper integration
 
Top Bottom